Some of the steering wheels for passenger cars are currently equipped with a controller which allows a driver to operate various in-vehicle devices such as an air conditioner without taking a hand off from the steering wheel during driving of a vehicle, and the controller enables a driver to operate the various devices without greatly moving the line of sight during driving. Regarding such a steering wheel, a patent application is filed for JP 2002-019550 (hereinafter referred to as Patent Literature 1), which discloses a structure in which a power generator is directly mounted on a steering wheel, and a patent application is filed for JP 2013-124514 (hereinafter referred to as Patent Literature 2), which discloses a structure in which a power generation mechanism is provided in a door handle, as a similar technique.
From among the two structures, the structure described in Patent Literature 1 has a technical feature in which power is generated by using kinetic energy of a section actuated by an operation of a driver, and proposes a steering-wheel power generation device including a motor with a weight as a specific embodiment. In addition, the steering wheel described in Patent Literature 2 has a technical feature in which a coil is wound around an inner wall of a hollow gripping portion and power is generated by an induced electromotive force generated when a magnet provided inside the coil moves, and enables use of a function such as transmission of door open and close information by using the generated power.